Lk 18:1-8
Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.” ’ And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’
BLOG DISCUSSION QUESTION: What's going on with that last phrase, "And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"?
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There are two ways you can look at Pastor J's Question I feel. The first thought was about Jesus talking about when He comes again to this world and how if you look at our world today and how many have no or little faith. If he would decide to come again now this would be what He is talking about. On the other hand, I thought He could also be talking about after He is raised from the dead on Easter and how He came to show Himself to His disciples. And disciples like Thomas who had no faith until He saw the hands and side of Jesus.
Another side note on this parable. My husband said it reminded him of a sermon Pastor Bob B from the church he grew up in gave. The pastor asked for a volunteer so my husbands mom volunteered him. He went up there and Pastor Bob waved money in front of him. My husband asked if he could have some and so Pastor Bob gave him some. He did this a few times and then my husband asked if he could have all of it. Pastor Bob said, "Sure!" and gave it all. The point was that eventually the asker would get tired of continually asking for what what he/she wanted and ask for it all or the giver would eventually become tired of hearing the asker ask and hand it all over.
Hope everyone has a great day!!
The Son of Man will not find faithful if He comes and finds fearful (those losing heart). Jesus gives a simple effective 2 word solution...PRAY ALWAYS.
Disciples in the previous chapter were losing heart from their fear of not knowing when the Son of Man was coming again. He tried to calm their fears by telling them not to listen to those who said about the Kingdom of God, "Here it is" or "There it is" because the Kingdom of God is within you."
Through confident prayer, the Son of Man will find those that had found the Kingdom of God within themselves, not a world aimlessly searching from a watchtower around themselves.
Jesus was using an example that everyone understood at that time. The judge was either appointed by the Romans or by Herod and they were all corrupt. They would find in favor of whoever gave them the most of whatever they had. So the woman in the story is the symbol for all those who had nothing, but she was persistent. The judge was literally afraid that if he didn't do something she would injure him. So he gave his ruling.
Now, for the question, will Jesus find us faithful. Jesus knows that he is not returning in our definition of time and he's asking will we give up on his second coming and turn away. Well, will we?
I find the concept of time to be an interesting idea to consider when dealing with God. God, who was before time and will be there after time is over, is beyond time, so questions of time are irrelevant when referring to God. Quickly is a "time" issue, and we who are locked in time have an expectation for what "quickly" means, which has no meaning in the timelessness of God.
All of this is to say that Jesus' question of if he will find faith upon his return revolves around our expectation of "quickly". Will we be patient, or will we lose heart?
God will answer. "Quickly". Whenever that is.
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